Re: Agent-mediated access (was Re: Criticism of Kidcode...)

At 3:46 PM 6/21/95, Peter Deutsch wrote:
>is to render it.  This is a very limiting world view.
>We're moving towards a world where it wont just be humans
>using these things and we wont want to see just files.
>Forcing people to work through the GUI (selecting URLs to
>fetch, for example) is going to be way too limiting for
>the long run.

This argument has been used against file systems for a long time.  You
really want a sea of objects, etc., etc..  Lots of attempts have been and
are being made in that direction - but when it comes down to it, J. Random
User has enough trouble with file system abstractions, they tend to get
lost if you take those concrete metaphors away.  That's not to say that it
can't be done in a way that will work. But I'd be very specific about the
user interface aspects before investing too much in the technology.

Kee Hinckley      Utopia Inc. - Cyberspace Architects    617/721-6100
nazgul@utopia.com                               http://www.utopia.com/

I'm not sure which upsets me more: that people are so unwilling to accept
responsibility for their own actions, or that they are so eager to regulate
everyone else's.

Received on Friday, 23 June 1995 23:01:19 UTC